Air Travel Flights: Factoring Surcharges Into Your Travel Cost

Last year saw a drastic rise in the cost of air travel flights. The rise in oil prices was followed by the rise in air fares, both in domestic and international flights. Today air travelers do not just have to pay a higher price for their tickets; they also have to pay several surcharges.

If you are going to fly, it is best to be aware of these new airline surcharges. This will help you set a proper budget for your airline tickets.

Bags Will Cost You

If you are going to travel in the coming months, be ready to pay for your bag(s). Most airlines had started charging for the second bag a while back. American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, AirTran, United Airways and US Airways are all going to charge you $25 for that second bag. However, now you will also have to pay an added fee for checking in even a single bag. At present, only Southwest allows two free checked bags on domestic air travel flights.

A point to note here is that you would be paying these fees each way on the roundtrip flights.

Now you cannot get around these fees by overloading your first bag because if you do so that would cost you too. For example, Northwest charges you $25 each way for your second bag and will charge you $100 for excess baggage fee even if your bag is one pound overweight. The allowed weight limit is 50 pound.

Phone Reservation Surcharge

Now if you are thinking about making a phone reservation for your domestic airline or international flight, you will have to pay a surcharge. Right now, the fees range from $5 (Northwest) to $25 (Delta).

Customer Service

Some airlines are also charging for providing customer service. Air Canada requires you to pay $25-$35 per booking if you are interested in getting speedy access to specially trained customer service agents.

Premium Seat

Now when you are paying for your flight fare, you will have to pay extra if you request for your choice of seat. Some might say that this has always been the case. After all, first class costs more than business class. However, this is not what I am talking about. Recently, United Airways has been offering premium seats for some extra bucks. If you look a little closer, these premium seats are coach class ones. The only difference is that they offer a little bit of extra leg space.

Some Tips To Help You Save

When you add up all the surcharges, the cost of your air travel flights is going to increase drastically. I know that if you have a tight budget, it is going to be pretty hard; however, with these few simple tips you will manage to save considerably on your airline tickets.

-Book early to save on airfare

-Research online for the cheapest airfare

-If you are a frequent flier, you can use your frequent-flier miles to upgrade. A domestic upgrade costs 15,000 miles each way. If you are traveling New York - San Diego, a first class ticket would cost you around $2030. A coach ticket on American Airline is around $320. If you upgrade, you will get more than 5 cents per mile. Therefore, for a few hundred extra bucks, you get to travel first class.

-Many airlines offer flight discounts to senior citizens.

The key to finding cheap airfare is to do your research properly. You will be amazed at how much you can save. After all, air travel flights do not always have to burn a hole in your bank balance.

Seed Newsvine

Bookmark this article in your preferred program

Comments

Add Comment

Popular Articles in this cathegory

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.